How Could You? Hall of Shame -Isaac Dykstra case UPDATED-Child Death

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Iowa City, Iowa, the case of Russian adoptee Isaac Jonathan Dykstra, who died in 2005 at the age of 20 months, has the first update since 2010 when the trial of his adoptive father was delayed. His adoptive mother was not charged with any crime. He had only lived with his adoptive parents for three months.

Brian Dale Dykstra, 33, his adoptive father charged with second degree murder has had “possible dates for the trial to include the week of October 24 or the week of November 28. However, the Judge and State recognized that proceedings may have to occur in a non-sequential matter because of scheduling conflicts.”

“A definitive date is expected to be set in the near future pending responses of availability from the 11 doctors and 39 witnesses expected to take the stand.

Emergency crews on August 13, 2005, found 21-month-old Isaac unconscious on the living room floor with apparent head injuries. He was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and pronounced brain-dead the next day.

Dykstra, formerly of Iowa City and now of Central, S.C., surrendered to authorities on August 9, 2008, after an investigation. He was released after posting $15,000 bail.

Second-degree murder is a Class B felony punishable by up to 50 years in prison
Tentative dates selected for trial of former Iowa City man charged in adopted son’s death
[Eastern Iowa News Now 6/28/11 by Erica Pennington]

“Brian Dykstra, now of South Carolina, is charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 13, 2005 death of the boy named Isaac, who was found unconscious and having trouble breathing. The child was taken to a hospital and died the next day.

Dykstra wasn’t charged until August 2008, and he has pleaded not guilty.

Trial was expected to begin May 23, but it has been delayed for at least a third time and hasn’t been rescheduled.”

Trial delayed for man charged in death of infant
[Des Moines Register 5/13/11 by Associated Press]

PoundPup Legacy has extensive files on this case here.

Update: “Johnson County attorneys prosecuting Brian Dykstra in the 2005 death of his 21-month-old son rested their case Friday afternoon, and Dykstra’s defense attorney immediately asked the judge to find his client not guilty of second-degree murder.”

“Assistant District Attorney Anne Lahey disagreed and said that numerous doctors testified that Isaac Dykstra had to have suffered the injuries that took his life on Aug. 13, 2005 – the day his dad called 911 and he was rushed to the hospital.

Dykstra told police that his son fell down two stairs days earlier, and he didn’t explain what happened Aug. 13 that preceded Isaac’s hospitalization.

“There were devastating internal injuries in Isaac’s head caused by a malicious act such as shaking, slamming or a combination of both,” Lahey said.

Grady declined to make an immediate ruling in the case, finding that there is evidence that Dykstra killed his son “with malice and forethought” due to the nature of his injuries.

“A rational juror could conclude that the injuries occurred while he was in the sole care of the defendant,” Grady said. “And the injuries show malice, and that there was a fixed purpose to do harm.”

The 14 jurors hearing Dykstra’s second-degree murder trial, which started Monday, got to hear details about the events preceding Isaac’s death from Dykstra himself for the first time Friday.

In a videotaped interview that Dyktra gave police on Aug. 13, 2005, Dykstra said his son awoke around the same time he always does that day but was yawning all morning.

“You never think of these things until now,” Dykstra told an Iowa City investigator in the recorded interview that was played Friday for the jury.

Dykstra told the detective that Isaac had fallen down two steps three days earlier and hit his head. He said the child suffered a bruise on his cheek and on his ear and a bump on his head that turned “mushy” over the next few days.

He said Isaac was a bit fussier after the fall, but he was mostly himself, according to the taped interview. Dykstra told the investigator that on the morning of Aug. 13, his son was just sitting in the hallway, feeling his head and watching TV.

“Normally he was all playing, and he was just sitting there,” Dykstra said. “He just wasn’t his normal self.”

Dykstra said he was in the kitchen washing dishes a few hours later when he heard Isaac cry, according to the interview. Dykstra said he found his son lying on the ground, crying “like he bumped his head again.”

Dykstra said Isaac appeared to be struggling to breathe, and at one point he “did a little bit of CPR,” according to the interview. Because the child was laboring to breathe, Dykstra said he called 911 but hung up.

“He seemed to be coming out of it,” Dykstra said.

When a 911 operator called back, Dykstra said someone should probably come help.

“I thought, ‘You know what, I don’t trust myself,’” he said in the interview. “I want someone here.”

Isaac was pronounced brain dead on Aug. 14 after suffering a hematoma, hemorrhaging, retinal bleeding and brain swelling. Investigators immediately considered the death suspicious, but they didn’t arrest Dykstra until three years later in August 2008.

He has appeared all week with a small group of family members and friends supporting him. He has dressed in suits every day and shown little emotion.

His defense is expected to begin Monday.”

Update: Judge refuses to dismiss murder charges in Dykstra trial
[The Gazette 10/30/11 by Vanessa Miller]

“A medical expert testifying at the trial of a man charged with killing his infant son in Iowa City says the child could have suffered fatal head injuries from a fall and appeared fine for days.Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist from Minnesota, took the stand on Monday at the second-degree murder trial of Brian Dykstra. He’s charged in the death of his son, Isaac, in 2005. Dykstra was arrested in 2008.The Gazette newspaper said Ophoven testified that Dykstra’s explanation that his son fell down two stairs three days before he was rushed to a hospital is plausible. The boy died a hospital.Dykstra’s ex-wife, Lisa DeWaard, also testified Monday. They adopted Isaac from Russia. DeWaard talked about the adoption process and said Dykstra immediately bonded with him.”

Expert: Baby Could Have Died From Fall
[KCCI 10/31/11]

“Lisa DeWaard, who told the 14 jurors today that her marriage ended with Dyktra on Aug. 1 of this year, talked in depth about their adoption process and said her husband was excited to adopt and immediately bonded with Isaac.

The couple met their child twice in the Russian orphanage where he lived before being adopted, and DeWaard testified that she had initial concerns about the fact that Isaac’s birth mother was HIV-positive, even though he had tested negative numerous times.

After the couple’s first meeting with the child, adoption officials wanted to know whether they were still interested, DeWaard said.

“I looked at Brian and said, ‘I’m a little nervous,’” she said. “He looked at me and said, ‘This is my son.’”

When the couple returned to the orphanage a second time to complete the adoption, DeWaard said her husband “kept hogging the baby.”

“It was fun to see Brian playing with him,” she testifying, explaining that he was teaching Isaac how to make car sounds and how to roll a ball. “They were probably the best days of my life.”

UPDATE: Ex-wife testifies in defense of Iowa City murder suspect
[Eastern Iowa News Now 10/31/11 by  Vanessa Miller]

“Lisa DeWaard defended ex-husband Brian Dykstra, saying that he had been “distraught” following the hospitalization of their son.

Ex-wife defends Dykstra in murder case
[The Daily Iowan 11/1/11 by Eric Moore]

Update 2: “When Lisa Dykstra left her 21-month-old son Isaac at home with her husband Brian Dykstra the morning of Aug. 13, 2005, Isaac was eating breakfast and “having a ball.”

Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey told jurors hearing the second-degree murder trial of Brian Dykstra during closing arguments today that the couple told a half dozen people in the days preceding Isaac’s death on Aug. 14, 2005, that Isaac was doing fine despite a short fall on Aug. 10.

“Lisa had no concerns about Isaac’s health,” on the morning after he fell down two stairs, Lahey said. A friend who came to the house on Aug. 12 – the day before Isaac was rushed to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with severe head injuries – looked the toddler over and saw just a small bruise on Isaac’s cheek, Lahey said.

On Aug. 13, 2005, Dykstra called 911 and hung up. When an operator called back, Dykstra said his son had experienced a seizure and was struggling to breathe. Paramedics arrived at the couple’s Iowa City home and found the child unconscious, with significant bruising all over his body and severe heard injuries, including a hematoma, hemorrhaging and retinal bleeding.

Doctors testified that such serious injuries had to have occurred that day and only could have been caused by blunt force trauma from something like shaking and slamming.

But Dykstra testified that the injuries that took his son’s life developed from the short fall on Aug. 10. Dykstra said he was in the kitchen on Aug. 13 when he heard his son cry and did not witness any traumatic event that preceded his 911 call.

His defense attorney Leon Spies during closing arguments told jurors that the “best scientific minds,” including the state medical examiner, have concluded that it’s “impossible to say that Brian Dykstra is a murder.”

“There is nothing in this case that is inconsistent with this tragedy being exactly what it is,” Spies said. “A tragedy. An accident.”

“After hearing closing arguments from both sides, 12 jurors began deliberating Dykstra’s fate. He is charged with second-degree murder, which requires the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Dykstra inflicted fatal injuries on Isaac with “malice aforethought.”

Jurors also could find Dykstra guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which means he recklessly inflicted the fatal injuries on Isaac, but he did not do it with malice.

During closing arguments, Lahey reminded jurors about earlier bruising that doctors noticed on Isaac after the Dykstras adopted him from Russia in May 2005. And Lahey pointed out inconsistencies in Dykstra’s stories about what happened on Aug. 13 around the time he called 911.

“We don’t know how many times he slammed his head down,” Lahey said. “We don’t know how many times he shook him.”

But Spies talked to jurors about the quality of Dykstra’s character – about his dream to be a dad and about the witnesses who testified to him being a loving father.

Spies stressed that several doctors and experts said toddlers can die from injuries sustained in short falls that develop over several days.

“It’s not fair to judge Brian on the statistics that death from a stairway fall is rare,” Spies said.

He told jurors, “We don’t take comfort in the mysteries of this case.” But, he said, if there are doubts, “They have to be resolved in Brian’s favor.”

Jurors told Iowa City toddler death ‘a tragedy, an accident’ in closing arguments of murder trial
[Eastern Iowa News Now 11/2/11 by Vanessa Miller]

“Brian Dykstra told a jury Tuesday he doesn’t remember what happened after his son passed out six years ago.

Dykstra has trouble recalling day of his son’s hospitalization
[The Daily Iowan 11/2/11 by Eric Moore]

“Prosecutors argued Brian Dykstra’s good character doesn’t mean he is not guilty of killing his 20-month-old adopted son.

Closing arguments, no verdict in Dykstra trial
[The Daily Iowan 11/3/11 by Eric Moore]

NOT GUILTY

“Brian Dykstra’s family and friends shrieked, gasped, cried, and anxiously laughed Thursday after the 35-year-old was found not guilty of murdering his 20-month-old adopted son.

[The testimony of people who WERE NOT THERE determined the outcome of this case!]

Dykstra found not guilty in son’s death
[The Daily Iowan 11/4/11 by Eric Moore]

“If convicted, Dykstra, 35, could have faced up to 50 years in prison.”

“Dykstra was arrested in August 2008 – three years after Isaac died on Aug. 14, 2005, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with severe head injuries including brain swelling, brain and retinal hemorrhaging and a hematoma.

Dykstra called 911 on Aug. 13, 2005, and hung up, according to police and trial testimony. When an operator called back, Dykstra said his son had suffered a seizure and was struggling to breathe. When paramedics arrived, they found Isaac unconscious in the living room with severe bruising all over his body and significant head trauma.

Dykstra told doctors and investigators that Isaac had fallen down two stairs on Aug. 10 and that he believed the injuries progressed over the next few days. He said no traumatic event preceded his 911 call on Aug. 13, but rather he was washing dishes in the kitchen when he heard his son cry and then watched him pass out.

Several doctors who treated Isaac said the boy’s injuries were so severe that they had to have occurred shortly before he was hospitalized and had to have involved blunt force trauma – like slamming or shaking.

But Dykstra testified that he would never hurt his child, and his former wife and several friends told jurors that he was a gentle and loving father.

Dykstra’s defense attorney presented medical experts who said that, although rare, children have been known to die from short falls. The defense also hinted that Isaac, who was adopted just a few months earlier from an orphanage in Russia, might have had unknown medical issues that were not fully disclosed. [Sick line of defense! He didn’t have pre-existing subdural hematomas!]

During closing arguments in Dystra’s trial, Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey told jurors that prosecutors didn’t have to prove how Dykstra killed his son – whether he slammed him or shook him – they had to prove only that he inflicted the fatal injuries, and Lahey reminded jurors that several University of Iowa doctors said the severe injuries only could have occurred shortly before Isaac was hospitalized, when he was in the sole care of his father.

But Dykstra’s defense attorney told jurors that even the Iowa Medical Examiner couldn’t say for sure whether Isaac’s death was a murder or accident. And, he said, any doubts had to be resolved in his client’s favor.

“The evidence was clear that Brian was not the kind of man or father who would kill a child they worked so hard to have in their family,” Spies said after the verdict Thursday. “It was a nightmare compounded too long.”

After the verdict was read, Dykstra declined to comment.

“Oh my gosh,” he said under his breath.”

Iowa City murder suspect found not guilty
[The Gazetter 11/3/11]

Other specifics of this case

• “On Aug. 10, 2005, according to the defense attorney, their lives changed forever. The boy fell head first onto a concrete floor and bruised, Spies told the jurors.
  Over the next few days, he said, Isaac showed other “subtle but important changes,” including a “squishy” spot on top of his head …But prosecutors said that when paramedics responded, they found a pale child with bluish lips, fixed pupils, bruising near his ear and a soft spot on top of his head.” Attorneys address events leading up to boy’s death[The Gazette 10/24/11 by Vanessa Miller]
• Nurse testimony:”Brian Dykstra looked at his child’s bedside nurse and asked her what happened. “Brian was sitting in a chair, and he looked at me, and locked eyes, and said, ‘Jen, tell me how something like this can happen?’” Jennifer Evans told jurors Tuesday during Dykstra’s second-degree murder trial in connection with the death of his son, Isaac, on Aug. 14, 2005. Evans, a former registered nurse for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, testified that she told Dykstra that only blunt force trauma — like being in a car accident — could cause injuries of that magnitude. “He didn’t respond to that,” Evans said….Evans said the boy’s mother, Lisa Dykstra, was “fully grieving.”“She was dry heaving — almost catatonic,” she said. “She was vomiting and crying.”Brian, on the other hand, “said very little,” according to Evans.“For the most part, he appeared very detached,” she said.
  Other nurses, doctors and law enforcement officers also told jurors that Dykstra seemed withdrawn as his son was dying.”
  Social worker and Fireman testimony: “Judy Stark, a medical social worker for UI Hospitals, told jurors that she was asking Brian and Lisa Dykstra about their son’s medical history, and they both mentioned a fall down two steps a few days earlier. She said they disagreed about a hematoma that doctors had found on Isaac’s head and that Dykstra said was there days earlier.
  At the crime scene, officers testified, Dykstra appeared to be nervous when they found his son lying in the living room with severe injuries. “But he was not in distress,” said Tom Lacina, who has been with the Iowa City Fire Department for 23 years. Firefighter Paul Suedkamp said he also found Dykstra to be emotionless, but not in shock. And he didn’t try to approach his son.
  “I would describe him as unconcerned,” he said. “He was farther away than I would expect a person to be from their child at an emergency scene.”  Man ‘detached’ as son died: Witnesses [The Gazette 10/25/11 by Vanessa Miller]
• “Retired Mercy Iowa City nurse Joyce Osborn said she was staffing a phone line for Mercy on Call, a free service that provides callers with medical advice, on Aug. 10, 2005, when she received a call from Brian Dykstra of Iowa City.Dykstra, 35, said he was calling to ask for advice because his 21-month-old son, Isaac, had fallen off a low step at the family’s home and hit his head on the floor. Osborn testified about the call in Johnson County District Court on Wednesday during Dykstra’s second-degree murder trial in connection with the toddler’s death four days later.
  Osborn said Dykstra told her that the boy had a bruise on his cheek and small knot on his head. The Mercy on Call computer system said home care would be adequate for the situation, but Osborn said she decided to override the program’s recommendation because she was concerned by statements Dykstra had made.
  “He seemed concerned that his son would have a (visible) bruise because a social worker was coming in a few days,” Osborn said, adding that she “thought that the call may have needed a doctor’s input.”
  An on-call doctor was signaled to call Dykstra about the incident.
  The next day, according to testimony, registered nurse Sue Kuntz conducted a follow-up call with the family. After talking with Lisa Dykstra, Kuntz testified, she did not feel there was a reason to be concerned about Isaac’s well-being.”
  “Former adoption specialist Hilary Condon, who helped the Dykstras adopt the boy from Russia, also testified that she found no reason to be concerned for his safety when she visited the family at their home Aug. 12.Nurse says she was concerned by father’s statements [The Gazette 10/26/11 by Erica Pennington] Hilary Condon was working for Family Resources in January 2007 according to this announcement .

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